


Thirty Six More Hours

by literarybrat



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Best Friends, Camp Jupiter (Percy Jackson), Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Jason Grace Needs a Hug, Pre-The Second Titan War (Percy Jackson), Secret Crush, Short One Shot, Teen Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:42:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,739
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24888550
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/literarybrat/pseuds/literarybrat
Summary: It has been decided that Jason would be leading the twelfth legion to topple the throne of Kronos and the pressure is finally getting to him. Searching for guidance does no good. Luckily, his best friend Reyna knows just what to say to make him feel a little bit more at ease.And Octavian knows just how to ruin the mood.
Relationships: Jason Grace/Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano
Kudos: 28





	Thirty Six More Hours

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this as writing practice and this was really fun. I appreciate some good Jason and Reyna friendship moments, if only we got them more in the books. 
> 
> Maybe I'll write the Jason Grace book about his adventures with Reyna if anyone is interested? (Insert that side-eye emoji.) Anyway, please enjoy it!

Being raised by a wolf isn’t easy. 

Not to assume that it is _supposed_ to be easy. Just in case anyone was wondering though: it isn’t. Life was just a little more difficult and dangerous. There was a training that had to be completed to be free from the wolves. It took an undetermined amount of time, but all heroes made it out with time to spare for the rest of their lives. 

Jason Grace made it out when he was twelve years old, surprisingly enough. 

Jason was sure he should’ve been let out a lot sooner than that, but it was clear something was holding Lupa, the she-wolf goddess, back from letting her cub go. Jason would watch as other heroes would come and go, being trained within months, yet, Jason Grace was stuck with the other wolves with nothing to do but train. 

Sometimes, though, Jason remembered he would sneak out late at night and go into the city and to the beach. He would see other kids his age and once in a while, he found himself face to face with a monster. The monsters never scared him. Lupa has taught him well to never show fear in the face of danger. 

Jason didn’t like remembering those times. He wasn’t the type of person who liked to break the rules all that often, he always found himself stressing out if he broke the rules. Sure, maybe there was some fun in it for some people, but it never appealed to Jason. Following the rules was the safer route.

Following the rules meant he wouldn’t get punished with a wolf chomping down on his leg as a punishment.

Yet, for as painful as the memories were, Jason couldn’t help but always find himself running back to Lupa whenever he was in search of guidance. Lupa was the closest thing he had to a mother figure. He didn’t know much about his biological mother, and the other parental figure in his life never really paid him much attention. Lupa was all he had left in the dark times happening around them.

There was tension in the air at all hours of the day. He had spent years at camp training for this moment. Jason should have been ready, yet, he was afraid. People were depending on him and Jason knew that he couldn’t let them down. If he let them down, where would the world end up. Kronos was rising. Jason didn’t know where he was but he could feel it. The fauns were anxious, exclaiming the nature spirits were whispering about his rise to power. 

Jason could tell that Reyna was depending on him too, always looking to him for advice. 

Jason paused just at the edge of the Tiber River. The sound of the water flowing made him relax and he slowly lowered his body down, the soft grass feeling warm under him from being hit by the sun all day. 

It had been a pretty slow day at camp. A lot of training was happening, a lot of tension in the air after the senate meeting the day prior about how Camp Jupiter was going to go about the Titan War. Jason would end up leading the expedition to Mount Othrys to topple Kronos’s throne.

His throne which held so much power. Was it even possible to topple the throne? Terminus claimed he could; as a descendant of Jupiter who had once done the same thing it was possible that he could, Jason still had his doubts.

“Lupa,” Jason muttered under his breath, steepling his hands together in prayer. “Tell me what to do, please. I don’t know.”

It had been weeks since Lupa appeared in his dreams and spoken to him and it made Jason feel uneasy. He was worried that she had given up on him in the same way that his father did. When had been the last time he spoke to his father? It must’ve been three years ago when he slew the Trojan sea monster, but even that visit had been cut short due to his father having to be somewhere urgent.

A part of him could almost see why some of the demigods in the other cohorts were questioning where their loyalties lay.

“Jason?” a female voice called from behind him.

The son of Jupiter whipped his head around and watched as Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arrellano made her way over. Her long dark hair was braided down her back and her forehead was glistening with sweat. She was suited up in her armor and looked a bit out of breath. “What are you doing here?”

She had an edge to her voice, some concern laced in her words as she sat herself down beside her friend. Jason lowered his hands and he leaned back, pressing the palms of his hands into the soft grass.

“Thinking,” he said. “You were training?”

Reyna stretched out her legs, wincing a small bit as she stretched. “I thought you were training too. Then, I saw you were gone.”

“Training gets boring after a bit,” Jason complained, scrunching up his nose. 

Reyna tossed her friend an odd look, raising a single eyebrow at him. “What’s so boring about it? You kicking Dakota’s ass for the eighth time in two days?”

“ _You_ kicking _my_ ass for the fifth time _today_ ,” Jason corrected. The two friends laughed. The world around them was so quiet, it almost felt like laughing was wrong, but it eased some of the tension that Jason was feeling before Reyna had came over.

Once their laughter died down, the two of them sat together in silence. In the distance, Jason was able to hear the sounds of training going on. There was never a quiet moment at Camp Jupiter, there was always something going on. The only silence that ever came around was that at night, but even that plagued Jason with nightmares.

Reyna broke the silence letting out a long sigh. “So, what were you really doing out here?” she asked, pulling out a handful of grass from the dirt.

Jason thought about telling her that he was praying to Lupa, he’d mentioned Lupa on a couple of occasions to her, but it was never something he went into detail about and it was never anything that Reyna ever asked too much about either. Reyna usually knew that if Jason wanted to talk about something personal, he would. Most of the time, he did eventually. Lupa was a touchy subject, though.

“Praying,” Jason admitted. “Searching for some sort of guidance.”

Reyna took a couple of seconds to answer, she had her head tossed back as she looked at the clear blue sky. “Let me guess,” Reyna said, “Lupa?”

Jason winced. He hated lying to Reyna, it was always a lot easier to just not tell her what was going on. She was the kind of person who had a lot of questions and overanalyzed everything Jason did. To be fair, though, it was also one of the reasons he called her his best friend. She always knew him best. There were even times when she knew him better than she knew herself.

“Yeah.” Jason nodded his head. “Lupa.”

Reyna looked at him and he could tell that she wanted to ask questions but she held herself back from it. It made Jason have the urge to just tell her everything about Lupa, how much he respected her, how Lupa was the only sort of adult figure in his life that listened to him about any problems he had. Jason didn’t want to do that, though, because Reyna didn’t have that. Jason almost felt as if it was unfair that he got to have that sort of relationship with someone and she didn’t.

Reyna opened her mouth to say something, then thought against it. She tried again. “You’re going to do great tomorrow.” She nodded her head affirmatively, clear confidence shone through her voice. 

Jason’s face burned. She had so much confidence in him. He was grateful she was also a praetor. “Thanks, Rey.”

Reyna groaned at the nickname. Reyna wasn’t a fan of nicknames, much less one for herself. 

Jason laughed.

Reyna cracked a smile. “In all seriousness though, Jason. You’re going to be great. You won’t be alone either. I’ll be there to help you and the entire fifth cohort has your back. We aren’t going to let you fail tomorrow. You are one of the best heroes this camp has seen in a long time, don’t doubt yourself.”

Jason stared at Reyna and found himself thinking how pretty she looked, relaxing in the sunlight and smiling at him. He liked that she believed in him. Her belief in him was all that mattered. Maybe he didn’t need guidance. Reyna was going to be there and together, nothing could stop them. They’d been through a lot together, what was one more adventure?

“Hey lovebirds!”

Jason and Reyna turned around and saw one of their friends from the third cohort, a son of Venus. He was grinning at them as if he knew something they didn’t.

“Octavian is throwing a fit that you guys aren’t at practice. You better haul your butts over there before the poor kid combusts.”

Both Jason and Reyna sighed in annoyance. Octavian was the worst, he always had something to complain about against the two of them.

“Rather than kicking Dakota’s ass this time around,” Reyna said as Jason stood ground and offered his hand to her, helping her up. “Why don’t you do us all a favor and put Octavian in his place?”

Jason grinned at her once she stood up, she hadn’t let go of his hand. Jason didn’t particularly mind it. “Now, Reyna,” Jason said with a slight shake of his head. “You know very well that I can’t hurt our beloved Octavian. Who else is going to annoy us to death on a daily basis?”

Reyna pulled her hand away from Jason’s and laughed good naturedly. “You, my friend, already annoy me on a daily basis.” 

Jason scoffed in offense. Before he could make a retort, Reyna ran off shouting over her shoulder, “Race ya!”

They still had a good thirty-six hours before they had to be serious, Jason figured it wouldn’t kill him to have a little fun for the last remaining hours that they had.

Jason grinned and ran after Reyna.


End file.
